Teddy Lupin and the Phantom Queen
by A Wanderer in the Snow
Summary: Teddy Lupin leaves Hogwarts with everything he needs to start his life: the grades, the money, the family, the girlfriend. Only, the world is changing and unknown forces reappear in the world, straight from myth, and legends spanning ages past.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

* * *

_Name: Edward Remus Lupin_

_Age: 18_

_D.O.B: 1__st__ April, 1998 _

_N.E.W.T Grades: _

_ Charms – Outstanding_

_Defence against the Dark Arts – Outstanding _

_ Herbology – Exceeds Expectations_

_Potions – Exceeds Expectations _

_Transfiguration – Outstanding_

_ Arithmancy – Acceptable_

_Other Awards:_

_ Hogwarts Prefect: 2013-5_

_ Head of School: 2015_

_ Gryffindor Quidditch Captain: 2014-5_

_Application to Auror Training, Stage 1: _

_ ACCEPTED _

_Signed:**  
**_

_Gawain Robards, _

_ Senior Auror, Head of the Auror Application and Training Division_

_ 23__rd__ of September, 2016_

* * *

The young man looked up from the piece of paper he was holding and grinned at his godfather, sweeping a hand through his short, spiky, electric-blue hair. He ruffled the paper and glanced down to check it really did say, '_ACCEPTED'_, then his grin broke out into a laugh.

'Congratulations, Teddy!'

'Congrats, kiddo!'

'You deserve it, you really do!'

He looked round at his family; his godfather and mother, his semi-uncle and aunt; unfortunately most of his cousins were at school, but his nine year-old god-sister hugged him round the waist saying, 'I knew you could do it, Teddy!'

'Course you did, Lils!'

He picked her up and swung her round in a tight hug as she shrieked and laughed, before he set her down again and the rest of the family swarmed in for their share of the hug.

'You know, Harry, I think this calls for a little celebration!' said his Uncle.

'I believe it does, Ron, I believe it does.' His god-father replied and slipped out of the room.

His god-mother moved to his side as conversations broke out around the room, 'Teddy, your Grandmother would be very proud of you, as would your Father and Mother.' She said quietly.

'I know, I know.' He said smiling sadly.

BANG

Uncle Ron had his wand out before the champagne cork hit the ceiling, and was glaring at a slightly abashed looking Head Auror Potter, who grinned like a teenager and said, 'Whoops!' Everyone laughed and Ginny went to get glasses while Harry tried to stop the bottle overflowing onto the carpet.

'Do it again!' cried Lily, who was laughing at Teddy.

'What?'

'When Daddy popped the bottle open, Teddy's hair went all white for a second!'

Everyone laughed again, and Ginny reappeared with the glasses on a tray.


	2. Interlude

**Interlude**

* * *

'Fer feck's sake, lad, stan'it still!' the older of the two men hissed.

'I'm tryin'!' the younger one hissed back, 'Yer no gettin any lighter, Jonny,' trying to glance round the corner to see if anyone was coming up the street.

A newcomer had moved into one of the houses on Hill Square the week before; Jonny and Craig were there to see if they had anything worth anything. They'd sat outside over the past week and watched, but had barely caught glimpses of the dark clothed figure who left for work early in the morning and came home after dark.

Whoever it was, had left that morning with an old-fashioned looking suitcase and Jonny reasoned it was a safe bet they wouldn't be coming back that evening. Still, they'd waited past twelve and now Jonny's feet soles were digging into Craig's shoulders as he tried to unlock the lowest window round the back.

There was a creaking sound and a click.

'Ngh, yeh bastirt,' Jonny huffed out and then there was a shuffling noise and his weight left Craig's shoulders. A few seconds later, the end of a belt descended over the window sill and Craig pulled himself up to join his tubby partner.

They waited ten minutes for any alarms to go off or suspicious neighbours to come snooping, but there was only the traffic on Nicolson Street and the neighbours probably had double glazing to keep the sound out as much as the cold.

The ten minutes also allowed their eyes to adjust to the darkness after the distant street lamps below and they moved across a room of a few cardboard boxes and a large dining room table.

Jonny made to the door first and opened it silently, whispering, 'Better no hae unboxed the tele, be easier tae push. Could do wae a new'un and aw. You go doon, I'll gae up.'

Craig pulled a face in reply; downstairs was always worse, had more of a chance of being spotted by the nosy neighbours, but Jonny was boss so he made for the stairs.

Kitchen, bathroom, cupboard all passed with absolutely nothing unpacked or even a sign of being used. He was just opening a last door when there was an inhuman scream from the heights of the house.

'Jonny!' he shouted, throwing caution out the window and diving for the stairs, 'Jonny! Wha'sit? Wha's wrong?'

He pounded up the stairs, first one flight, then a second before noticing a revolving light on the third floor. Launching himself up the last set and almost tripping on the top step, he found Jonny's torch rolling gently across the carpet, away from a slowly closing door.

He stopped, breath streaming from his lungs and took a flick knife out of his back pocket, opening it and holding it point downwards so he could punch and stab.

'Jonny? You there pal?'

He edged forward, waiting to hear sirens in the distance or some kind of sign of what had happened to Jonny.

'Jonny man, what you playin at?' he whispered, more for his own sake than Jonny's, wherever he was.

A soft crooning voice suddenly answered him from beyond the door, 'There my lovely, there, there.'

It was female.

Craig lifted his leg and smashed the door open with his boot; it flung back on its hinges and slammed into the wall.

White with fear, he almost made it all the way down the stairs before he tripped and fell, tumbling through the landing door to get to their entry point. His knee was bleeding and his wrist felt broken but it was nothing to what he had just seen, he had to get out.

He crawled to his feet and fell again as the knee gave way. He turned onto his back, facing the door and tried to push his way desperately towards the window.

Something skittered on the stairs.

Some logical part of him, tucked deep in the back of his mind said that nothing could 'skitter' down the stairs; they were carpeted.

The door opened slowly.

The bloodcurdling scream echoed once more down the alley behind Hill Square.


	3. Chapter 1, Case

**Case**

* * *

The Auror Office was fairly quiet at seven o'clock in the morning; none of the senior Aurors were about yet and the night shift were looking forward to a day's rest. Teddy was in his third and last year of Auror Training though; spending as much time in the Auror Office as he could was pretty much mandatory.

Of the seventeen recruits who had started two years ago, five of them were left. Teddy had been at Hogwarts with Darren Darcy, but Harry Uckst was Durmstrang, while Danny Tamra and Skye Dales had both gone to Beauxbatons. On the first day of the Auror Academy they had been told in all likelihood that they would not become an Auror; there were maybe one or two places to be had, that they would have to fight for a place. Afterwards they had gone for drinks at the Leaky Cauldron and got to know one another, a Welsh boy called Quin had told them not to get friendly, as he didn't like losers.

He had been dropped from the course eight months later.

Teddy glanced round the Office, noting Yadlow and Ballantyne were at their desks looking bleary eyed and watching the door hopefully for the next shift arriving. No one else seemed to be about yet, so Teddy headed down the right side of the office to where he had been assigned to Auror Fawcett's team for the final year.

Third Year was all about putting training into practise, according to his Godfather, and Teddy was nervous with anticipation of this last year. Only last night Danny had been saying that teams with Third Years got called out more than most, simply to put them into action. Teddy wasn't sure if he believed him though.

He made to the end of the row and arrived in the large cubicle he occupied along with Senior Auror Lara Fawcett, a slim, thirty-something woman with a tendency to speak bluntly and Osh Yabbit, a West Country Junior Auror with a tendency to look like an idiot and incredibly quick wandwork.

There were a couple of invoices in the 'In' tray and Teddy turned them over, one was for Lara and the other was for the team. Looking over the partitions to see if the other two were on their way and seeing they weren't, Teddy opened the second one.

It was a simple reminder of the All-Auror's meeting at eleven o'clock. Teddy checked his watch; he had almost four hours, so he stuck between Lara and Osh's desks, signed in that he was in the training rooms and headed for the Academy doors.

The Auror Office had a simple layout; the hallway opened into the main office, a series of partitioned working areas that were used by the different teams. On the far side, the Head Auror's Office was a fully-walled office next to the entrance to the joint Auror-Department of Mysteries Library. If you went right as you came in, then you'd get to the Auror Academy and if you went left you'd find yourself outside the toilets. There was a running joke that the people who annoyed the Head Auror the most always got the working area next to the toilets.

Teddy reckoned he could put in forty-five minutes training in the battle rooms before the others on his team showed up. Getting in early and training was his way of reminding himself that maybe only two out of the five remaining third years would make it to the end of the year.

He pushed open the Academy doors and stepped into the hallway, his eyes quickly found the picture he unconsciously looked for every time he had stepped through that door for two years. The walls were lined with photographs of every Auror there had been since photography had been invented. It took him seconds to find the photograph of _Nymphadora Tonks, Auror, 1994-1998, Killed in Action. _He smiled sadly and looked at the faces around her; _Frank Longbottom, Alice Longbottom, Incapacitated Permanently; David Proudfoot, Rufus Scrimgeour, John Dawlish_, all smiling and all _Killed in Action._

'Hi Mum,' he breathed, watching her smile for a moment before continuing down the corridor towards the changing rooms. The door opened easily and he was surprised to find Skye's locker already open and a pile of clothes on one of the benches. Someone else was taking it seriously too. Teddy grinned and opened his own locker.

* * *

He reached his desk almost an hour later; both Fawcett and Osh were waiting for him.

'Lupin, we're going to Edinburgh.'

'Oh, right?' Teddy replied, 'What's happened?'

'I'll tell you on the way, Osh, you can guard the perimeter while we're gone,' Fawcett said with a tight smile.

A look of shock crossed Osh's face, 'What? I haven't been away from this desk in weeks! My ars-'

'Yeah, yeah… we know.' Fawcett cut him short, 'Wand, Lupin?'

Teddy checked both holsters and followed his supervisor to the cleared apparition space at the back of the office, 'Whereabouts in Edinburgh?' Teddy asked.

'We're taking a portkey.'

'Okay.'

She stopped him before he took one of the small emergency port-rings from the slots on a rack in the wall. They were a recent invention that had been adapted from some objects confiscated by the Experimental Charms lot that his Godfather had requisitioned and passed along to the Weasley Brothers to play about with. The result was the port-ring; a now common usage emergency portkey for getting out of tight situations where anti-apparition wards had been placed. He wasn't expecting to use it, but it was standard Auror procedure to take one everywhere; in this case it was a second one. He had one disillusioned on a chain around his neck that his Godfather had made him promise to always wear.

'There's going to be dead bodies,' Fawcett said shortly, looking him in the eye.

Teddy shrugged; he'd seen hundreds of photos over the last two years of crime scenes and had been to a few of the Law Enforcement ones to see the real thing.

'Okay, then, ready?'

Teddy nodded and took the wand-like length of wood she offered, feeling a jerking motion as he did so.

* * *

The bobby on the door eyed the two with suspicion; they weren't the first today to claim to be from the Home Office, but their IDs checked out and he radioed the Sergeant who cleared them. He frowned but knew better than to say anything, a young woman and a lad who looked barely out of university had nothing to do with him, better to keep his peace and keep an eye on them.

'Two bodies, Miss; one on the first floor, door on the right at the top of the stairs; the other's on the third floor, second room on the left.'

'Thank you, Officer.'

He stopped her with an open hand before she went past, 'Oh, and Miss, it's not pretty.'

She gave him a sad smile, 'I know, I know.'

'Forensics will give you the lowdown; Lottie's up there somewhere.'

Teddy looked up with recognition; Lottie Pyke was one of the few members of the real Home Office who knew the Magical World existed and was the leader of the forensics team in Edinburgh. Apparently when she had been introduced to Magic she had barely even blinked; just nodding and saying, 'Well, it's hardly surprising is it?' much to the consternation of Teddy's Godfather who had already had two bad reactions from people who needed to be 'in the know' for Muggle Relations to work properly.

Grey-haired and sunny, Lottie was sat on the top step of the first flight of stairs, 'I was wondering how long it would take you lot to turn up; the others weren't happy at being pushed off this one,' she said by way of a greeting.

'Lottie, this is Teddy Lupin, Harry's Godson.'

The old woman's eyes sparked with interest, 'Oh, really? We'd best get on then, do you want me give you the facts or leave you for a bit. You know I could have taken samples if you'd let me, and had them ready for you.'

She stood up and turned to the plastic screened door behind her, 'The first one's just in here, he's a bit grisly.'

'Give us what you know then, Lottie,' Fawcett replied, following her through the sheeting and gesturing for Teddy to do the same.

The body was sprawled near the window, on a blood soaked section of carpet by an open window.

Lottie's voice changed slightly as a she began reeling off what her team had found before the Aurors took over and it took Teddy a moment to realise she was giving a report.

'The victim has been identified from police records as Craig Mullen, the younger of two criminal brothers. We suspect the other, Jonny, is upstairs but we're having to go through dental records for him.

As far as we know, they broke in through this window and searched the house. Judging from the fingerprints we have so far, Jonny took upstairs and Craig went down. Jonny found something he wasn't supposed to and copped it; Craig obviously heard and went upstairs to look. Whatever he did find scared the living daylights out of him, he practically fell down the stairs to get out. This is an armed, hardened criminal we're talking about.

Obviously he didn't make it. Whatever it was caught him before he could escape.

Now, the bobbys who searched the place called in the animal unit and authorised an infrared search of the house; they came up with nothing.'

Fawcett nodded in agreement with her summary so far and Teddy privately agreed too; calling the animal unit was the obvious choice. Most of one leg below the knee was missing and the rest looked like it had been chewed.

'What do you think, Teddy?'

He took one look around the room, then glanced at the body again, 'I would say Werewolf or Vampire, but there's too little damage for a werewolf and he wouldn't have made it down the stairs before either caught him. A vampire wouldn't have chewed him up either.'

She watched him for a few seconds longer, 'Anything else?'

Teddy took a step closer and squatted down to get a better look, 'Bite marks look almost human.'

'Almost?'

'They could be. Can we see the other victim?'

'One moment. _Homenum revelio_.'

The senior Auror waited a moment, then said, 'Nothing; apart from us and the policeman on the door. Let's go upstairs.'

* * *

The second body had been eaten.

Mostly.

It was obvious as soon as they stepped into the room why Lottie Pyke had had to resort to dental records. The majority of the man's face was missing, along with both hands and an entire leg.

Teddy walked quickly to the bathroom and threw up.

Shaking as he washed his mouth out at the sink, he tried not to think about what he just seen. There was a huge difference between photographs and dead bodies, and dead bodies and mutilated bodies.

* * *

It took all the willpower he could muster to stand up straight, wipe his mouth on his shirtsleeve and walk calmly back to examine the room.

Auror didn't seem bothered at all, 'It happens to everyone at some point,' she said clearly as he stepped back through the door, 'It definitely wasn't human, by the way,' gesturing at the floor.

Teddy nodded, not trusting himself to speak yet and following her pointing finger to the scraped claw marks in the wooden floorboards.

'Ruling out vampire and werewolf for definite; vampires are too careful and werewolves too big to make marks that small,' she continued.

Teddy turned to look around the rest of the room; it was large and should have been a bedroom but for the lack of furniture. There was a fireplace in the back wall and large windows on the left-hand side. He swallowed, opened his mouth, studiously tried not to look at the body and swallowed again.

He watched his supervisor walk around the room, scan for dark magic and carefully examine the door handle before he managed to squeeze out, 'Has anyone spoken to the estate agent?'

'Officers are on their way,' it was the first time Lottie had spoken in several minutes, seemingly content to examine the body from the safety of a small platform that had been rigged over the bloody floorboards.

Fawcett cast one more spell and a surprised look crossed her face, 'This fireplace has been used recently.'

Lottie looked up, 'Obviously, there are ashes in the grate.'

Fawcett turned and looked and Teddy, 'For Flooing.'


	4. Chapter 2, Unknown

**Unknown**

* * *

Darcy looked up from paper-covered desk at Teddy's approach, 'Dashing' Darren Darcy was what Teddy considered the epitome of British; Irish, Scottish and English heritage all rolled in, with just a little too much self-respect to be Welsh. Dark-haired with a scoundrel's eye, it was hard to believe he had just broken up with a girlfriend he had been with since third year of Hogwarts. Still, he raised an enquiring eyebrow at Teddy, while trying to hide his interest in the first real case any of them had had, 'So, our intrepid detective returns?'

Teddy raised both eyebrows in mocking return, forcing the question from his friend, 'Any leads?'

'One,' Teddy grimaced, 'It ran cold; according to Ministry records the house isn't connected to the Floo Network, but we managed to get back here using that fireplace. Someone's conveniently lost or destroyed the record of it, though Lara thinks it's probably from the Second War; muggle-born family killed off, records erased, but no one disconnected the floo.'

Darcy nodded, 'Makes sens-'

'Only, I've just been down to the Home Affairs Office and they've got no record of a witch or wizard living there, ever.'

Darcy simply shrugged, 'Second War again; a lot of documents went missing and people disappeared.'

'Or someone's covering up.'

Darcy snorted, 'Bit early in your career to start getting paranoid, isn't it; you'll end up like Savage.'

Teddy grinned a little, 'Just keeping my options open.'

'That's good to know,' a voice interrupted and they both turned to find the third Trainee Auror leaning on a nearby partition.

Skye Dales smiled brilliantly at them, 'Hey guys, bad case, Teddy?'

'Double murder, some kind of dark creature; in an unregistered wizard house. Oh, and the estate agent can't remember what the buyer of the house looked like, probably a memory charm. We'll need a warrant to try and break it.'

She nodded, blonde hair rising and falling in a curtain down the right side of her face before it softened slightly and she turned to Darcy, 'I'm so sorry about Charlie.'

He shrugged, 'Don't worry about it.'

Charlotte Lovall had been Darcy's girlfriend since their Third Year at Hogwarts and joined the Auror Training Program at the same time. A year after leaving Hogwarts they had moved into together in a flat in London; a year and a half later, Charlie was dropped from the Auror Training Program. Teddy had watched them struggle with the difficulty of Charlie suddenly having to find a job she didn't want to do and the burden of having to watch Darcy continue with the early mornings, late nights and gargantuan amounts of pressure.

Darcy had come to Teddy's door on Friday night with two suitcases, a backpack and a request to stay for a while. Teddy said he could stay for as long as he liked; Twelve, Grimmauld Place had been built for a large family and with just Teddy it occupying it, there was space for any number of guests.

* * *

'Nothing; no record whatsoever.'

Fawcett looked up without surprise, 'Whoever it was, wasn't entirely stupid then.'

'Any other leads?' Osh asked, leaning back in his chair and thumping dragon-hide boots onto his desk.

'I passed some samples onto Pergo to analyse; but we could do with finding what made these,' she replied, holding up a high-resolution photograph of the claw marks that had been on the floor, 'in the mean time.'

Osh took the copy of the photograph he was handed, 'You said, not werewolf or vampire. Ghoul?'

'Too small,' was Teddy's immediate answer.

'How about an Erkling?'

Teddy looked up from the photograph he was holding, 'N- do they have claws?'

'They eat humans; it explains the undersized bite marks too,' Fawcett continued.

'But do they have claws?'

'If they sharpened their fingernails, then yes, you could call them claws.'

'Wait a second,' Osh interrupted, setting his feet back on the floor, 'I thought they only went for children and they're not British natives.'

Fawcett stood her ground though, 'If I left you in a room without food for long enough, you'd eat the first thing through the door. And what's being native to Britain got to do with it?'

Teddy mused over the photograph a little longer, 'Well, if you say Erkling, it's just as likely to be an Occamy. They're not native to Britain, but they're big enough to take down a human and it could leave talon marks on the floor. '

Fawcett fell silent, running a hand through her hair and staring at the photograph, 'We'll need to wait for Pergo's results then; in the meantime, I want you two checking up on rare animal dealers and if they've had anything small enough to go in a house and dangerous enough to kill two adults pass through recently. Get hold of that Salamander man as well.'

'Scamander?' Teddy asked, thinking of his Godfather's friends.

'That's the one; the expert on animals. Get him to identify these.'

* * *

Teddy bumped into a harassed looking wizard coming out of the Head Auror's Office on his way to see his Godfather, 'I can't bloody believe it- Oh, heya, Teddy.'

'Auror Finnegan,' Teddy said, smiling, 'What's up today?'

'Recruits started this morning and I get an owl this afternoon saying that the MLE have picked up a tip on the whereabouts of MacNair, only the stupid pricks didn't call us in. The silly sods went and stormed the property without any kind of say so; turned out to be a five year-old's birthday party. But the fools went in wands blazing and firing stunners everywhere; now we've six Muggle kids in St. Mungo's and the Minister's asking _me_ what the hell happened.'

Senior Auror Seamus Finnegan was leading the case on the capture of the three last remaining supporters of the Dark Wizard Tom Riddle; Walden MacNair and Travis Scabior were still believed to be in Britain, whereas Aiden Mulciber had been sighted on the continent several years before.

Auror Finnegan shook his wild hair out of his eyes before muttering, 'Fecking morons…' and stalked away.

Teddy turned and knocked on his Godfather's door, before responding to the called, 'Enter,' and opening it.

Head Auror Harry Potter sat behind his desk looking more than a little tired, 'Morning, Teddy.'

Teddy grinned, 'Afternoon, Harry. You look awful.'

'I know, didn't get an ounce of sleep last night; had a meeting with Kingsley until late, then we got a message saying James has been hospitalised in Rome…'

Teddy went from teasing to shocked, 'Is he alright?'

'Ginny's gone out to see him; took the first portkey available. A curse or counter-curse backfired or something, he'll be fine, Ginny wouldn't stop worrying though,' he sighed, perhaps at his wife, or at his son's accident.

James had just finished school, come out with excellent grades in Defence Against the Dark Arts and Arithmancy; and joined the Gringott's Cursebreakers program. Currently he was in Rome where they were still discovering ancient mausoleums far beneath the city protected by curses no one had ever seen before.

'Anyway, enough of James' issues, why are you here?'

'I need to get in touch with Luna and Rolf; we've got an interesting case in Edinburgh. Two dead Muggles and a bunch of claw marks all over the scene. We need them identified by an expert.'

'I'm afraid Luna's in Uzbekistan at the moment, but Rolf should be at home; I'll call him in for you.'

'Cheers, Harry.'

* * *

Rolf Scamander was a thin man with a blonde goatee and an easy smile, as he matched Teddy's pace on stork-like legs, 'Erklings wouldn't make marks like that; they're too careful you see. Could be an Occamy, I'll need to see the pictures and then probably take a look at the site.

A minute or too later the easy smile was gone as he perched on the edge of Osh's desk and stared through a large magnifying glass at the photographs. A frown had settled over his features and he put down the magnifying glass to stroke the corners of his mouth, 'Not an Occamy then, or anything I can recognise easily. You say the corpses were partially eaten?'

Teddy glanced at Auror Fawcett who nodded.

'Well, whatever did do this had talons, not claws.'

'It was a bird?'

Scamander gave the Auror a small smile, 'Not necessarily.'

They all turned and looked at the photographs again.

'Can you be certain that the animal that made the marks on the floor was the same that-'

A memo circled once then fluttered down into the 'In' tray, unfolding itself as it did so; Fawcett picked it up and read it, 'No venoms, toxins or other poisons found. The bite marks were consistent with a human-shaped jaw.'

Scamander scratched his ear then said, 'I'll need to take a look at the scene then.'

'We'll head up first thing in the morning,' Fawcett replied, checking her watch and ending the meeting at the same time.

* * *

'Well?'

The trainee Auror shook his head and leaned back into the shadows, tilting the stool so he could lean against the wall, his face hidden by the low peak of his flat cap and the high rise of his coat's collar. Teddy shrugged, Harry Uckst was a mystery to most and could incredibly frightening when he wanted to be; he was also what some people called, 'a half-breed'. Wiry, tall and more inclined to stay near the shadows than most, his father had been "as mad as a leprechaun" and his mother a Banshee.

Teddy had considered him a bit of a pretty boy for the first few days of the Auror Training program; one of those continually silent, mysterious types girls loved to go after. Later he had found Harry to be a good friend, even if his eyes glowed a faint fluorescent green in the dark and he had the steely strength of his mother. Skye had also once said he had the best singing voice she had ever heard, but Teddy assumed she was joking; he had never heard Harry Uckst sing a single note.

For the moment though, they left him to his silence, knowing he would answer when he wanted to.

'I'll tell you it was a damn sight better than my day,' Danny, the remaining trainee Auror started.

Skye sighed though, 'Oh, not again Danny; we know you don't like Tasselby and we know you had a boring day. What's the next plan Teddy?'

Teddy considered his nearly empty pint glass for a moment, 'From the way Rolf was looking at those photos, I don't think he has any idea what it was that killed those men. We're going back up to Edinburgh tomorrow, but I'll say now; we're not going to come up with anything.'

Danny frowned, 'You said Scamander was the best in world.'

'Apart from his wife maybe,' Teddy replied, 'But yeah, that basically means it's something no one's seen before.'

'Or hasn't been seen for a long time,' Skye added.

'We were at Glastonbury.'

The three turned to see Harry Uckst had lit a cigarette, but the dim glow seemed to fail before it reached his face. Teddy tried not to grin, Harry would never admit it, but he loved creating an atmosphere and now they would find out what Harry had been doing all day.

'A Law Enforcement Officer; one of the Hit Squad went missing from his house last night, his wife reported it. We got the case this morning and heard that Muggles living near Glastonbury Tor had heard shouts and seen lights up there last night. We found his wand there this afternoon, along with a lot of bloodstains around the tower.'

He leant forward on the stool so that all four legs came back in contact with the ground, the low celtic wash of his voice holding for a moment before he let them have the last piece of news, 'Could be something to do with your case,' he shrugged, 'might not be, but we found claw marks in the ground. All over the place, you should take a look tomorrow.

We also found, "Dioladh sé" daubed on the wall. It means, "She returns" in old gaelic.'

The others stared.


End file.
